I talk to lots of people interested in the Christian movie market, lots of young people.  There’s a lot of older people too, but there’s a new generation of folks interested in getting involved in what they see as the “Christian Film Industry.”  Well, I figured I would try to clear up some assumptions about how things work and what I think is possible and what is not.  Some will find it offensive saying I’m “limiting what God can do,” but most of those folks end up being the very people who have investors yelling at them because they spent too much on something they couldn’t sell in the first place.  Offended already?  Good, now lets continue.

Bottom line, unless the budgets of the films you’re working on are high enough to pay you decent for your time, don’t expect to make much unless their profits are significant.  It’s the age old problem of balancing investment and returns.  If you spend $100,000 on a small character driven drama with a tiny crew who gets paid for their time (decent but not amazing rates) and let them go, and pay your actors a decent rate of maybe $100 / day, then there’s not much left for you if you’ve already considered a marketing budget inside that $100,000, equipment rentals (if any), your score, initial copies being made if you’re selling them yourself, etc.  The reason to make a sub $100k film or $50k film is to just simply get the movie completed, in hopes of making a decent sale and profiting enough on the backend to get your “pay.”  That gives you most of the risk, but it yields the greater reward.  Oh, lets not forget you’re doing a lot of the jobs, so you need to be talented and proactive, and there’s also risk if your film being a bit worse since your freedom to collaborate creatively is minimized the more hats you wear and don’t hire others for.  Doing things this way means you’re going to make less movies then the average full-time filmmaker, and you’ll need to do a few of them before what they make you every year is enough to truly step away from whatever else you’re doing to make another.

This has always been my plan since I started learning the realities of the market.  I want to make three (two left) films under $150k (under $100k is even better) that allow me to hone my skills a bit more, improve with each one, and profit larger amounts so that by the time they’re completed and have tapered off, what they bring in on average (even after bottoming out) will be enough for a decent base income.  At that point, taking a bigger risk with a film in the $250-350k range makes more sense.  This also means (like I said above) that I’ll continue to wear a lot of hats.  However, in doing that there’s risks, and as much as possible on the second and third film I do, I want to give up as much of them as possible on the production end.  Post-production isn’t an issue, and while some might think I could benefit from having another editor, the comments and critiques of friends are more then enough to improve a product, and when you’re working on these lower budgets, sparing thousands for an editor on the front-end or (worse) back-end isn’t my idea of wisdom, not with this business model.

Now lets look at the alternative.

The alternative is what I see most other people doing.  Some have a grasp of what the market can handle and want to take a risk, and others don’t.  Filmmakers are throwing money at movie after movie assuming the higher production quality is going to raise their DVD sales.  Most of the time this isn’t the case, and it ultimately comes down to the strength of the story, the marketability of your story and message, including cast (if that even applies), and the care with which you design your marketing campaign overall.  This includes choosing the proper title with as little competition as possible on the shelf as well as online which isn’t just limited to other products with your name, but the availability of domain names, usernames on social media sites, etc.  It’s easy for expensive movies to get some of these things wrong, and set themselves up for disappointment.  There’s also the possibility of overshooting how many people will care about the story you’re making, which should effect how much you spent on it.  People spending $250k+ have a lot more risk then people sticking to the <$150k range.  Now granted, I’m assuming you’re going to do as well as the average movie in my market which means if you sold anywhere near 50,000 copies you did really well.  Considering the typical distribution deal giving you a few bucks (if that), you still have a lot of catching up to do.  That 50,000 will likely be sold in the first 2 years as well, so consider the timeframe here.  Of course there’s always exceptions.  The distribution deal you make has a heavy influence on all of this, as do foreign sales, TV broadcast, personal copies you sell, etc.  Folks making movies in this budget range normally leave room for a small salary which can get them through the shoot and maybe give them a little extra (maybe).  Typically the crew is bigger, most major crew positions have someone very capable, but they’re all working for modest or low rates at best.  With smaller stories on much lower budgets, it can actually be easier (in my opinion) to pay people higher rates, since the amount of people to pay is fewer.  It’s funny because odds are (story depending) the difference between you spending $150k and $250k won’t be much.  All it takes is a few more crew positions, a better score, having more then one camera, etc. to bump up a cost that much.  If you shoot it faster, that’ll change things since you can squeeze more out of your crew for the same pay.  I could blog all day about the different options you have because it’s almost unlimited, but really when it comes down to it, you have a lot more money to pay back with interest.

On investor sheets, my toes scrunch up in my shoes when people try to name the Sherwood movies or Left Behind, or some other huge movies in our market as the justification for why said investor should pay for their film.  When people do that I know either they’re ignorant of the realities of what they’re getting into, or they don’t have any problem using a mediocre and unbalanced example for why their film is worth investing in.  I know I just stepped on some toes since everyone and their brother points to films like that as the financial success they hope to emulate.  I’m not in that game.  I’m not even in the theaters game, or even the Blu-ray game right now.  DVD is still where it’s at for the Christian market and I can assure you we’ll be one of the last to let it go.  You may bring up the technological advances in churches the last 10 years, but I would submit to you that only a small percentage of those regularly buying Christian movies go to them or run them.  That’ll change, but for now DVD is the large majority of what is sold.  Why does that matter?  Well, lots of people justify spending (or what they plan to spend) on their movies because theaters are their goal.  If you want my personal opinion, the theaters are going to become increasingly more difficult to get into, even more so then they are right now.  If you want them because you want to reach outside the Christian market with your movie, then I suggest you find another market, because the Christian market probably isn’t for you.  That’s not an airtight case, and there’s exceptions, but lets be honest, the large majority of those going to see distinctly Christian movies at the theaters are the Christian folks.  Where are the marketing dollars spent in the first place? Besides Courageous and Soul Surfer, you haven’t really seen any mainstream advertising running things for my market, and the dollars to do it are astronomical, far outside the reach of those who don’t have a special deal with bigger studios like Sony.  I’m not saying don’t spend the extra dollars just in case you end up in a theater, but at least know the likelihood that you’ll ever get there, and even if you get there know the realities of doing well or not and what that can mean for a film that’s probably too expensive already to succeed on DVD without some above average sales.  Am I crushing any dreams yet?  In a way I hope so, because I’m just as tired of hearing flights of fancy as I am seeing people quit because they didn’t bother to get the facts before blowing some eager wealthy mans money on their masterpiece.

The reality is, very few people actually make money in Christian market and if they do, it’s because they fit into one of few categories.  A) They make a lot of movies a year, like PureFlix. B) They distribute their own movies, like Rich Christiano. C) Their budgets are so low even modest success means big profits. D) They have another job as well, which is where you’ll find most people including me.  The goal is to become B more exclusively with a mix of C when it’s appropriate.  I personally have no problem making smaller character driven stories my entire career.  I have no aspirations of making a giant epic, or a sci-fi extravaganza, or whatever else.  Thank goodness for that!  To those that do, keep dreaming, and put together a solid script and business model, and then wait.  For a lot of folks, waiting until the market proves it can sustain what they’re looking to do is the best option.  Unless you have a really good reason to take the risk, it’s just not worth it.  I’m not saying don’t take any risks, but if you’re putting everything on the line for a movie that clearly has no audience or from a financial standpoint stands almost ZERO chance of getting money back, then I say don’t do it.  I say that and have said it many times to people just on principle of stewardship.  I don’t care what your investor signing knowing that their risk is high, it’s not their money you’re spending.  It is, but there’s a lot of more useful places for money to go then into a project that’s foolish.  They’re just as responsible for giving you investment as you are for taking it in the first place.  I’m not trying to point fingers, just keep that in mind when considering how much money you want to spend and on what.

What about those of you who want to work in specific positions on crew?  Well, the fact of the matter is, there just isn’t enough movies being made to sustain a career right now, not if you want to work in Christian content only.  For those carrying a flag for content that’s specifically Christian, it’s time to give it up.  I didn’t say you had to work on something questionable, but you won’t be working on Christian movies only.  Find work on other projects, because for the most part, that’s where the more experienced people are anyways.  Work on a Christian project when you can get on one, but they’re few and the people interested in working on them are many.

Truthfully, and I say this as truthfully as I can, very few people make much of anything off their movies.  Distributors make a decent amount and for the most part unless you get a good deal, you don’t make much, not unless your movie sells quite a few copies.  You think Sherwood is making $19.99 when their movie sells at Lifeway?  Think again, but even with the low amounts most larger distribution deals give, when you sell millions of copies like they do, the dollars coming back are very nice.  For you filmmakers like me, the plan needs to be different.  There is a way to do this and not until after my movie came out did I realize I just was lucky enough to have done it a good way, but some aren’t so lucky.  Be careful, and stop looking at the huge successes of the market thinking your film will be the exception because you think God spoke to you in some dream.  Cut it out.  Of course God can wow and surprise us, but that’s no reason to take a ton of the facts and the way things typically work and toss them aside.  Exceptions don’t remove the rule or standard, that’s why they’re exceptions.  Unfortunately too many folks get too deep too fast having never given things enough thought, and they’re dead in the water faster then you can say “Name it and claim it is goofy.”

Some will take what I have to say and toss it away, and Lord knows I’ve been proven wrong before, but if this article even has some thinking harder about what they’re doing and whether or not they’ve thought it through enough then I’ll consider the post a success.  There’s no straight answer to the title of this post, it’s all dependent on 1000 factors.  I just hope I’ve dispelled some of the rumors and assumptions floating around out there.  Yes you can make movies for a living, but many of you can’t and won’t that want to, and those that do have a long, laborious, and often lonely but (if successful) rewarding road ahead.  Be smart, take good counsel, do research, have good business sense, protect your families, discern well of others before you’re waist deep in their crap, and stay alert because at every turn is sin or worldliness looking to trap you.

I hope this blabbing of mine has been helpful.  If so please comment…adios!

OTHER ARTICLES:

Christian Movies…just how good are they?

Trouble Writing Stories For The Christian Market

This is a topic that’s been brewing in me for quite some time now.  I work in the Christian movie industry for those who aren’t aware.  That’s my primary market whether it be the films I’m making, the websites I’m doing, the DVD covers, marketing, consultation, all of it.  The market itself has grown quite a bit in the last decade or so, but the opinion of it hasn’t changed that much.  Maybe the opinion about it as a viable business model has changed (and probably that’s where the most change has been) but we still make mediocre movies.  Do we make God honoring movies?  Well yes, more or less.  There’s plenty of movies in our market I don’t agree with message wise, as I sit in the Reformed camp theologically while the vast majority of Christian movies are made from an Arminian or broad evangelical type standpoint but that’s a post for another day!  The movies we make may hold Kingdom value, but that isn’t enough for me to plop down a 10/10 on IMDB, or to give it a 5 star review on RottenTomatoes.com.  Why?  Let me explain.

IMDB.com has a built in algorithm that’s meant to help offset voting abuse.  What’s voting abuse?  Well it’s giving something a review it really doesn’t deserve, and that being done multiple times over.  Example?  Fangirls of the latest Twilight movie heading over to IMDB to give their shirtless idol better chance of a pay increase with their 10.0 rating.  They text all their friends to have them do the same.  Viola!  A padded score bloated with reviews from the rabid fans based solely on the passion of the moment.  Wait, Christians don’t do that…do they?

October Baby made by two friends of mine, The Erwin Brothers, has a 4.4 currently on IMDB with 47.7% voting 10/10 and 26.8% voting 1/10.  Had the Christian folks who gave it a 10/10 given it something more honest in the 6-9 range, IMDB wouldn’t have had to bias the score to account for both abuses…in fact it probably would’ve given the film a much higher score then 4.4 if the abuse was heavily on the low end and well balanced on the top end.

I hate to be crude, but it’s like a one night stand after a night of drinking, where you wake up with a hangover and roll over to see the hideous person you thought was hot the night before.  You get up quietly and sneak out so they don’t feel cheap, preserving what little honor you had to begin with.  Anybody ever see a movie and feel that way later?  While it was playing you wanted so badly to like it (for whatever reason), that you’re willing to convince yourself afterward that it was as good as you’d like it to be.  Anybody else ever have that kind of experience?  I sure have, and the next morning when you actually give it thought you realize where you went wrong.

Lets face it, very few movies deserve a 10/10 because that means PERFECT.  You might have that perfect movie in your mind, and if you’re being honest then by all means, click away.  1/10 is reserved for the very worst of movies, and I think there’s actually place for movies to have a rating that low.  But on the top-end, 10/10 should be nearly impossible, so why do so many Christian movie fans enthusiastically pad our scores in an attempt to legitimize the movies we love?  If you didn’t know already, voting that way on IMDB actually HURTS the score of a film.  At one point because of the score my film was getting on IMDB, and because of all the 10′s the film had received, I asked friends who I knew had done it to change the vote to something honest.  Whether that meant it went from a 10 to a 5 or a 10 to a 3 doesn’t matter.  Don’t judge a film high just because it affirms things you do, but weigh things out, logically and carefully.  It’s not that hard to do really.  Afterwards my score balanced out a bit more into territory that felt more fair to me.  To those who would say “well we gotta vote 10/10 or 5 stars because of all the liberal wackjobs who are giving it 1/10 and 1 star!” you’re not helping you’re hurting.  Extreme kickback and reaction is never surprising but always annoying.  What you’re doing is just as harmful as what they’re doing.  You’re mad at them because they’re bias, but aren’t you doing the same?  They think it’s the biggest piece of trash ever, and you think it’s the greatest thing to ever grace the silver screen.  Anybody seeing a pattern here?

Some may say any review I might give of a movie is super critical and I’m just being a “perfectionist” or I’m just dumping on everyone’s work.  Is it that, or did they guzzle the Koolaid?

Is it because we fear criticism?  I could go on for pages and pages about how the LACK of loving rebuke and criticism has hurt the church at large, but to keep my blood pressure down I’ll refrain.  Are we so anxious to see our little industry flourish that we’ll sing unanimous praise for anything the next big distributor dishes out or (gasp!) the next Sherwood movie?  God forbid any movie made by Christian people be criticized thoughtfully.  Oh goodness, whatever will we do if we don’t bow down in worship of the next big Christian movie!  It’s very common today to be called hateful or “unloving” in the broad evangelical church today if even a syllable of criticism comes from your mouth.  ”God used it to touch someone therefore it’s off limits!”  Really?  Does anyone have any intention of improving and growing or shall we all just stay in our little bubble of self-perpetuating mediocrity while we eat the scraps off the table?  I’m not attacking any one movie, or any one person, but the mindset and the attitude that I see rampant online in the Christian community in regard to our movies (and outside of movies honestly).  The comments blasted at some reviewers of popular Christian movies like Fireproof or Courageous are downright shameful for a Christian.  Is it possible that some reviews out there are actually accurate, and not soaked in some sort of God-hating agenda?  If someone reviews a Christian film who’s not a believer, is there any chance they can still review it based on artistic merit alone?  If we took the Christian content out of most “great” Christian movies, what you’d find is a lot of average to below average work.  Now I realize, there’s reasons for that.  A lot of first timers aren’t going to have fantastic work, and my movie is no exception.  The Christian market is actually a wonderful market for upcoming filmmakers, because (for better or worse) you can sell almost ANYTHING in this market and come out on the other end alive.  From a business standpoint that’s encouraging, but in other ways it doesn’t speak well to our quality standards does it?

I suppose my greatest frustration is with the soft, fluffy, and pansy-like nature of the market I work in. The creators of South Park at one point made up a plan to create their own Christian music album, with love songs rewritten to include the name of Christ.  The reason this was so amusing to them, is because based on what they see in the Christian market (on the music end) they could likely make a CD full of normal love songs replacing “baby” and “lover” with “Jesus” and make a buck with it, since a large portion of Christian consumers would eat it up.  They even joked about doing it all with their own money, going to conventions disguised, and selling the CD from booths.  Would they have gotten away with it?  Honestly, I think so.  Sound outrageous?  Well, the idea is certainly a bold one, but I hate that a plan like that could probably work.  Are we really that stupid and blind?  Are we really that foolish?  Has our discernment been degraded that much?  I don’t think I have enough strength in my fingers to blog about why I think that’s true and what I think that means for our future as the Body of Christ.

A little Jesus here or there and a few Bible verses doesn’t warrant bias for a thumbs up, at least not for me.  Unfortunately that’s often the case, with little discernment given.  We’re so gullible to accept what merely feels good or sounds good, without giving much thought to whether or not it IS actually good, or whether it’s just playing us like a fiddle.  The Christian movie audience is the most gullible audience, akin to movies made for toddlers.  We jump for joy for almost anything, as long as it meets our spiritual content standards or in a toddlers case goofy characters and a lot of colors.  I understand the hunger for family-friendly content or content that isn’t what Hollywood is putting out all the time, but can’t we strike a balance somehow?  Must we be so shallow?  The Asylum is a production company in LA that makes low-budget rip-off movies for the DVD market.  They often make movies with similar titles of upcoming Hollywood movies as to rob sales from the films publicity.  It’s a brilliant business model, and they often come out very profitable.  Well, as they looked at the Christian movie industry they saw a perfect opportunity, and they’re now with their production arm “Faith Films” making cookie-cutter ripoff Christian content for the Christian market.  The fact they can even get away with it is pathetic.  Their first effort was Sunday School Musical, a Christian version of High School Musical.  I just found out the other day they made Countdown: Jerusalem which they lifted from PureFlix Entertainment’s upcoming movie Jerusalem Countdown.  Do you really want the company making Sharkoctopus 5 producing the next slew of Christian movies?  The fact a company that makes horrible B-movies on purpose is looking at the Christian market as a market that could fit into their business model doesn’t speak well to our future.  Because of the recent success of the Sherwood movies and the viable business opportunity being recognized around the country, expect to see a lot more secular companies getting involved in making “Christian” content (or their opinion of it) for your families.  Be careful and be discerning!

I realize there’s always personal bias when it comes to rating a film.  Everyone brings their own scale, so there’s no way to draw the line.  If someone rates movies purely on how it made them feel, that’s going to be different from someone who is a student of cinema and weighs in all the factors with how they rate something.  I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that most Christians review products based on how it makes them feel.  That’s the age we’re in isn’t it?  Church is all about how I feel; worship is all about how I feel, etc.  I think C.H. Spurgeon would have a thing or two to say about that kind of mentality in regards to what we buy, how we run our churches, what relationships we allow or don’t allow our children (or ourselves) into.  For those that want to operate that way, you be my guest and see where it takes you, but can we at least have the decency to leave those alone who are seeking not just truth but quality and honesty in their art?

Christian distributors and leaders wave their flag every time a big new movie is about to come out saying “This time Hollywood is going to take us seriously!  This time we’ll show them!  Get out there and buy tickets or buy DVDs!  Send them a message!”  Really?  The message I see Hollywood coming up with is “Yes!  We like these mediocre movies and by golly I’ll pay $10 at the theater and $20+ at the store to have it in my home!”  That’s not the right message people.  By all means support the Christian movies out there, and yes please buy them for your home, but lets keep a level head shall we?  Lets try to be a bit more constructive so we can see the quality of the films we consume increase over time.  Production quality is the easy part to increase because all it takes is the right people and some money where necessary, but we need better crafted stories with better performances, realistic dialog, and we need to be able to live with endings and narratives that don’t fit the same cookie cutter mold over and over again.

See Post: Trouble Writing Stories For The Christian Market

I love this market, I really do and I appreciate the people in it, but there comes a time every once in a while for a biff upside the head.  I have no problem giving one when I think the consumers in the market I sell in are too busy rubbing the shoulders of my peers instead of giving them a slap on the back of encouragement to improve, while at the same time supporting what it is they’ve been able to dish out at the current time with the resources they have.  Can we celebrate the latest Christian movie at the theater and be thankful for growth?  Absolutely, but does that mean that it needs to be given a perfect score?  NO.  A good filmmaker would welcome criticism, and cherish it, because if they care about making good films they’ll realize that criticism is the key to greater art and (in return) greater impact not just in the target audience but beyond.

In closing before anybody lobs an arrow at me saying my movie wasn’t all that great, I’ll say here publicly without fear that it’s indeed a mediocre movie.  It’s a 5/10 at the most.  It was made for nothing over a long period of time starting when I was 18 and finished when I was 22.  However, I make no apologies for making it or for selling it. It is what it is for the time it was made in, and the same should be said of other movies out there in my market.  By God’s grace I’ll improve and I feel incredibly Blessed that my little movie will be in a RedBox kiosk near you on April 24th.  It almost doesn’t seem fair, and believe me I know the blessing that is, because I know more then any of you what my movie is.  For those that really love it, I’m grateful, and for some that’s truly the case.  My comments aren’t meant to downplay your enjoyment or hurt any feelings of those involved with the movie, but I will not puff up my chest to look like something I’m not, because what I am is a filmmaker with a long way to go and (Lord willing) a hopeful future ahead.  We’ll find out next time I make a movie whether the criticism I’m lucky enough to have goes to use!

Blessings,

Kyle Prohaska